Posts tagged Air Pollution

Climate change a major threat to global health: WHO

0 Comments read Environment & Development, Health & Science
Climate change is impacting health. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 11.04.2022 (SciDev.Net): Climate change poses a serious threat to human health that calls for urgent action and global collaboration on scales seen in the COVID-19 response, says the World Health Organization (WHO).

“If we don’t take action today on planet health, we are putting our future health at risk. And when health is at risk, everything is at risk. That’s what we have learned from COVID-19,” Takeshi Kasai, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific Region said addressing a virtual press conference from Manila on 7 April, World Health Day

“Climate crisis is also a health crisis since climate change affects health in many different ways,” Kasai said, emphasising the need to build sustainable, climate-resilient health systems.

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Is farming harming our health?

0 Comments read Environment & Development, Health & Science
Researchers look at how agriculture is adding to climate change and negatively impacting health outcomes. Photo Credit: ©Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 01.07.2021 (SciDev.Net): While increased agriculture production has reduced hunger, it is also linked to unhealthy diets and increased emissions that are severely affecting human health, says a study.

Published in Environmental Research Communications, the study focuses on the integrated assessment of global climate, air pollution and health impacts of food production and consumption.

“Changing global food consumption patterns towards healthier diets would see reductions in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and dietary health benefits,” says Chris Malley, lead author of the study and senior research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute’s (SEI) office at the University of York in the UK.

As many as 640,000 premature deaths are associated with high red meat consumption in East and South-East Asia, according to the study. An estimated 4.1 million deaths in 2018 were associated with dietary health risks, 6.0 million with overweight or obesity, and 730,000 infant deaths resulted from malnutrition.

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© Copyright Neena Bhandari. All rights reserved. Republication, copying or using information from neenabhandari.com content is expressly prohibited without the permission of the writer and the media outlet syndicating or publishing the article.

A breath of fresh microbes

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By Neena Bhandari

Sydney 12.11.20 (The Medical Republic): Microbiomes of the gut and the skin, in particular, and their interactions with other organs, have been increasingly linked to human health status.

Now, most recently, scientists have begun investigating at another microbial community, called the aerobiome – that is, the airborne microbial communities we live in and breathe in every day.

Recent research by scientists from the University of Tasmania has found urban environments alter people’s exposure to the aerobiome, which has potentially important, but underexplored, health impacts.

“People living in urban environments can inhale approximately 100 million bacteria each day. This microbial exposure helps shape our internal microbiomes and seems to be connected to the rise in allergic and inflammatory diseases in urban areas”, says Emily J. Flies, lead author and lecturer at University of Tasmania’s School of Natural Sciences.

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© Copyright Neena Bhandari. All rights reserved. Republication, copying or using information from neenabhandari.com content is expressly prohibited without the permission of the writer and the media outlet syndicating or publishing the article.